Digimon Twilight
by zblazer
Summary: An original story about a young boy who finds a stray Digimon in the real world and their journey together with other Tamers to try and protect both the real and Digital World.
1. Meeting

**AUTHOR NOTES: **Hello, quick author notes by Zero, who is me. This story is completely original, and while some aspects of it are related to previous Digimon media, in no way are any of the universes related, at least at this time. Whether or not I do it in the future is uncertain, but I will probably not. Also, I have only spellchecked/grammar-checked this once and am usually writing when I'm tired, so there may still be plenty of errors within the story. If you find any and leave a note about them along with a comment, I will be sure to edit it if I agree it is an obvious mistake. Please refrain from commenting on only an error since it does not give any impressions on the work to other people. Thank you.

Additionally, I am using Japanese terminology and names for this fanfiction. In other words, I will use the Japanese names of Digimon as well as the Japanese terminology, such as Evolution instead of Digivolution. For readers who are only familiar with the dub version, I will place the Dub name of the Digimon in parenthesis the first time I mention the Digimon, but all future times I will use solely the Japanese name. Thank you for your understanding.

All the Digimon in this story will be canon Digimon, but the evolution charts of these Digimon may be altered for my own benefit. Please understand. Thank you again. I also do not own anything Digimon-related.

With all that out of the way, please enjoy. If you like it enough, please leave a review/comment. It keeps my drive going a bit longer.

* * *

Chapter 1

Meeting

* * *

A young boy stepped outside of a school, only to pull back due to the heavy rain.

He sighed. "Forecast didn't predict this…"

He looked around at the umbrella racks to find one he could 'borrow,' but none were present. With no other alternative, he held his schoolbag over his head as he dashed toward home. Water soaked into the fabric of his clothes, causing them to become heavier and colder. Every step he took resulted in water splashing around him as well as getting into his shoes. He wasn't tired, but started to breathe heavily because of how cold he was. As he ran down the sidewalk, he suddenly came to an abrupt halt. There underneath a tree was a small dog no larger than a basketball in a mikan box. The tree's leaves barely protected the dog from the rain, but simply by looking at the dog it was obvious that it was cold. The boy looked at the dog, then back at road home, then back at the dog again. After a sigh of defeat against his ethics, he walked over to the dog. He placed a hand on the dog's head to pet it, and immediately felt how cold it was. He continued his hand down its back, feeling bones as well as shivering from the dog. He picked the dog up and out from the box and quickly darted home with his schoolbag clamped under an arm. His dry black hair quickly dampened and his vision started becoming blurry due to the water getting into his brown eyes, but he managed to get back home in one piece.

Upon arriving he quickly pulling out his house keys and opened the door. He slammed the door behind him before catching his breath. The sound of the roaring rain outside was dampened indoors, but the sound of the water dripping from his body onto the hardwood was clear due to the house being completely silent.

"…I need a bath...," he said to himself, and then looked at the dog, "as well as you."

After taking off his shoes and leaving a trail of water from the front door to the laundry room, he placed the dog down and began to strip out of his school clothes. He roughly pulled the blue blazer off and threw it into the washer. Following the blazer was a white button shirt, a red tie, navy blue dress pants, white socks, and gray boxers. He had a hard time taking off his clothes due to them sticking onto his body after being wet.

He opened the door to the bathroom and filled the bathtub with hot water. He soaked into the water with a sigh of relaxation. He looked over at the dog still standing where he left it. The boy gave a gesture for the dog to come over. The dog's mouth smiled like a human and it quickly jumped into the bath, creating a small splash. He picked the dog up so it wouldn't drown in the water.

"You're definitely not a normal dog," he commented.

The only thing normal about the dog was the cream colored fur. Everything else was odd. The dog had huge blue eyes and a mouth that could move like a human. Its feet were also just round shapes with no claws. The only thing missing now was…

"Thanks for helping me!" It cried joyfully in a high pitched voice.

The boy blinked a few times before rubbing his temples. He looked back at the dog who just thanked him.

"Am I sick?" He said to himself.

The dog's smiled turned into a frown. "Oh no…are you?"

He was either delusional or the dog was talking. He gave his cheek a pinch. It hurt. He was still fully aware and the dog was talking.

"…We can talk later." He sighed.

After warming up enough in the bath, he soaped up both himself and the dog. Having a dog with some human intelligence was helpful in that it wasn't going to put up a fight if you tried to wash it. After washing off, he rose from the bath and dried himself with a towel before putting on a t-shirt and some boxers. He knelt down and cleaned off the remaining moisture from the dog after it had shook most of the water off itself.

The two of them walked into the kitchen where the boy opened the refrigerator door for some milk. He looked over at the dog. "You okay drinking milk?"

The dog tilted its head. "I'm not sure."

"I'll take that as a yes. Hot or cold?" He proceeded to grab a glass and a small bowl.

"Cold please!"

He filled up the glass and bowl with milk before setting the carton back in the fridge. He placed the bowl on the ground for the dog to drink. The dog began to furiously drink the milk.

The boy sat in a chair and took a drink of his own milk. "You're going at that pretty hard. When's the last time you had something?"

The dog took a break to respond. "Oh I don't remember. It's been so long since I've had something to eat." It went straight back to drinking.

The boy looked around and found a can of chunky meat soup in a cupboard. He wasn't particularly hungry himself, but thought the dog needed something.

"Well," he pondered to himself, "It's not a normal dog. It should be okay to eat this kinda stuff."

After opening the can and warming up its contents in a saucepan, he poured the soup into the now empty bowl the dog was using. Unlike a second ago, the dog was now taking its time due to the soup being hot, and also due to having satisfied its initial hunger.

"If you don't mind, can I ask some questions?" The boy knew he was taking this a lot more calmly then he should have.

"Okay." The dog ate a piece of meat, and then gave a cheery face.

"Um…what are you and where did you come from?"

"My name is Plotmon(Salamon)! I'm a Digimon!" It said brightly.

"Digimon…okay…," he planted his arm on the table and supported his head with his hand. "What's a Digimon?"

"We're beings from the Digital World: a world that parallel to this one, except it's full of other Digimon like me."

The boy felt it was safe to just consider the dog an alien for the time being. All this Digimon stuff didn't make any sense to him.

"How about you?" the dog asked.

"Huh? Oh." He started like he would in the beginning of school. "My name's Rei Ichikawa. I'm a 17 year old high school student in his third year. My hobbies are soccer and playing online role-playing games. You can call me Rei."

"You can call me Plotmon!"

Rei and Plotmon looked at each other for a while before Plotmon drank more of its soup.

Plotmon wasn't really causing any trouble, so Rei decided to just leave it be. He placed his empty milk glass into the sink before slumping into the sofa in the living room and flipping on the TV with the nearby remote.

He decided to just proceed with idle talk with Plotmon. "Are you a guy or a girl?"

Plotmon pondered a bit. "Digimon don't have set sexes, but if I were to categorize myself, I would consider myself female."

A female dog, Rei thought to himself. "What were you doing before I found you in the rain?"

"Well, it was a few days ago. I was with some other Digimon when suddenly there was this huge earthquake!" Plotmon attempted to raise her front paws for dramatic effect, but quickly fell back down on them. "Before we knew it the ground split in two and I fell into the crack. Next thing I knew I wound up in the human world. I stayed in that box for days without anything to eat until you showed up! Thanks a lot!" A bright smile shined on her face.

Finding nothing good on the tube, Rei clicked the TV off and threw the remote to one side of the couch. "I'm exhausted…" he yawned and closed his eyes.

Plotmon ran up the couch and snuggled in beside him. "Me too…"

With the sound of the rain still pouring outside, the two of them drifted off to sleep.


	2. Unfriendly Encounter

EDIT 10/18/10: Grammar/Spelling error detected by "DephsXylex"

* * *

Chapter 2

Unfriendly Encounter

* * *

After the sound of a flush, Plotmon stepped out from the bathroom with a look of relief on her face.

"How was it?" Rei asked.

"No problem!" Plotmon smiled.

Rei had just potty trained Plotmon the next morning. Thankfully it only required five minutes.

A ding rung through the house, indicating the laundry was dry. Rei walked over to the dryer and quickly pulled on the clothes he washed the previous day.

"I have to go to school," Rei explained before Plotmon would ask.

"Can I come too?" She asked.

He looked at her. "No, you can't. We can't bring pets to school."

"I'm not a pet!" She pouted.

"But you look like one." He stopped as he realized his shoes were still drenched. With a sigh, he grabbed some Velcro sandals. Not like it mattered. He would change to his school shoes later.

"I'll be back by the afternoon. There's food over there if you're hungry." He pointed at a bowl on the ground with some beef stew.

"See ya." He left the house and locked the door behind him.

* * *

In class, Rei stared out the window thinking about Plotmon and how she was doing alone at home. She knew how to use the TV and the bathroom, so there shouldn't have been any problems.

"Ahem!"

Rei snapped back to the front of the class only to confront his homeroom and English teacher, Sheryl Clyne. She was a woman in her mid 20s with blue eyes and long blonde hair with a light shade of pink dyed in. She wore a red business suit and black high heels. She looked at him amused. "Is there something outside more interesting than class?"

"Uh, no sorry," he quickly apologized.

"As punishment you're going to have to read the next paragraph aloud to the class." She walked back to her area behind the podium.

He grimaced while some students chuckled. He stood up and proceeded to read the paragraph in very broken and accented English. English wasn't one of Rei's best subjects.

"Good attempt," Sheryl said. "Now can someone tell me about what this paragra-"

In the quiet classroom the sound of a vibration was heard. Sheryl looked down at something behind the podium, presumably a phone, before looking back up at the class.

"Something has come up. I'm afraid I must leave. Class is now self-study for the day. I'll see you all tomorrow." She opened the sliding door and left the class.

The class was now muttering amongst themselves on why she had to leave. Some said she was in trouble while other said she was meeting up with a boyfriend. Rei didn't care much about this gossip and just sat in his seat staring out the window. His hand was bored so he played around with a gold ring that hung from his neck by a chain necklace. The ring had some strange words on them that no one seemed to understand. He held it up toward the window. His father gave it to him before he passed away, but didn't say what it was. Not that it mattered. To Rei it was just a sentimental trinket.

Within the middle of the ring he saw the last thing he was expecting: Plotmon. There she was on the school ground looking left and right as if she was trying to find something, or someone.

Rei rushed out the classroom and down the stairs. He slammed open the glass front doors and ran over to Plotmon.

"I thought I told you to stay home," Rei said while catching his breath, "How did you find me anyways?"

"I had to warn you!" Plotmon cried in distress, ignoring his question. "Something's coming!"

Before Rei could ask more, a shadow loomed over the two of them. It was from a hideous purple monster with large black wings. It had claws on its hands and feet and wore red attire. One of its hands was notably longer than the other. It also had fangs and horns on its head.

"Chaos Flare!" It shouted in a deep rough voice while flapping its wings.

A purple wave of energy rushed out from its wings. Rei quickly grabbed Plotmon and ran, barely evading the attack. The wave crushed into the ground, causing chunks of the pavement to scatter everywhere.

"Flame Inferno!"

With no time wasted, the monster released an intense fire that Rei could feel the heat of even before the attack was released. The spread was too big. He wouldn't be able to dodge this attack.

"Star-Light Explosion!"

As sudden as the fire, golden grains rained down from the sky and extinguished the hellfire from the monster.

Rei turned around to see a majestic looking bird with four golden wings and a strange helmet.

"Are you alright?"

Rei looked lower to see Sheryl running toward him. "Ms. Clyne?"

"Rei!" She looked as shocked as he did.

"Sheryl!" The bird screeched.

"Right!" Sheryl took a step forward. "Rei, quickly get away from here! It's dangerous."

"What's going on? What are those monsters?" Rei shouted amongst the chaos.

"I'll explain later! You have to get away!"

The purple monster and the golden monster started to fiercely battle each other.

Knowing that running would be best, Rei turned around and dashed away with Plotmon in his arms.

"Kyaa!"

"Sheryl!"

Rei turned back around to see what had happened. The purple monster had done something to make Sheryl fall unconscious. The bird worried about its friend, but continued to battle with the other monster.

"Crimson Flare!" The bird shouted.

"Flame Inferno!" The monster shouted back.

Two blazing flames came from both monsters and collided with each other, causing a large explosion. Rei shielded his head with an arm while firmly holding onto Plotmon with the other as a huge wind rushed by due to the explosion.

When the smoke cleared, Rei saw that the purple monster had the golden bird by its legs where two golden rings hung from.

"Slash Nail!" The purple monster roared, crushing the golden rings to pieces.

"No…!" The bird cried out in distress as it fell to the ground as if it lost all strength.

"Chaos Flare!" The purple monster released a purple wave of energy from its wings again.

The blast directly hit the bird, searing through its feathers into its flesh. The impact of the bird hitting the ground caused another explosion to occur. Rei felt something hit his foot from the explosion. He looked down to see some kind of pink rectangular device with a screen and some buttons. He picked it up, but quickly looked back toward the clearing smoke. The large bird was gone, but a smaller pink bird was unconscious in a large crater created by the purple monster's attack.

The monster's eyes directed back to Rei and Plotmon as it slowly hovered toward them.

"Damn it, we have to get away…!" Rei said to Plotmon.

Plotmon freed herself from Rei's grip and took a step forward. "Get out of here! I'll hold him off!"

"Are you crazy?" Rei shouted at her. "Did you see what that thing did to that bird? You don't have a chance!"

"I'll think of something!" She turned to look at him. "Don't worry about me. This is repayment for saving me yesterday."

Rei gritted his teeth. What kind of repayment was this? All he did was take her in from the rain. It wasn't anything life-threatening. The difference between these two deeds was too far apart to be compared.

"Chaos Flare!" The monster once again fired the purple wave of energy.

"Run!" Plotmon dashed toward the oncoming blast.

"Plotmon!" Rei screamed.

Suddenly, Rei's golden ring began to glow, and the screen on the device Rei held lit up.

EVOLUTION BYPASS

WARP EVOLUTION

A light enveloped Plotmon. Rei looked in awe. "What's going on…?"

"Plotmon, Warp Evolve to…!" Plotmon shouted from within the ball of light.

WARNING

ERROR DETECTED

The purple blast hit something in front of Rei and was deflected. More smoke clouded his view so he couldn't see what it was. As it cleared though, a woman stood where Plotmon once was. She was an elegant woman in a purple dress and black hair held up with hair sticks. On her back were drooping black wings as well as a pair of small bat wings. A golden hand was held out and was probably what caused the blast to be deflected. She retracted her arm so her hand came across her mouth. She then gradually lifted her eyelids, revealing glistening purple eyes. She slowly opened her mouth to speak…

"…Lilithmon."


	3. Digimon Maintenance Squad

**AUTHOR NOTE: Please Read the Author Note on the first page if you have not read it yet.**

* * *

Chapter 3

Digimon Maintenance Squad

* * *

"Lilithmon…?" Rei asked himself, staring at the woman before him.

Without a second thought, Lilithmon dashed at the winged monster. She winked at it. "Don't move."

The monster suddenly began to move awkwardly. Its limbs twitched and its wings stopped flapping, causing it drop from the air.

"Good boy…." Lilithmon held her golden hand out. "Nazar Nail!"

She stabbed forward with her hand, but the beast barely dodged the attack and flew back up into the air.

Lilithmon looked annoyed. "I guess Darkness Love isn't that effective against someone like you…"

"Chaos Wave!" The familiar purple blast fired from the monster's wings.

Lilithmon gracefully evaded the attack. She then held a hand up to her chin. "Phantom Pain…" She sighed out a thin purple mist.

When the mist touched the monster, it screamed in agony as its body was slowly decaying. It took one last glare of hatred at Lilithmon before it started to retreat.

Lilithmon sighed. "What a bore." She turned her head toward Rei.

Rei took a step back from the woman, but she was faster. Before he knew it, she already had a nail from her golden hand below his chin. She seemed to be only around 170 centimeters tall as opposed to Rei's 185 centimeters. This didn't make much of a difference however, since her imposing attitude was all she needed to strike fear into Rei.

With a small giggle, she lowered her golden hand and placed her normal hand on Rei's cheek, stroking him softly. "How different you look now that I'm in this form…"

Rei blinked a couple of times before he realized who this woman actually was. "Plotmon?"

She lightly shook her head. Her hand traveled behind Rei's head and pulled him closer so her mouth was right next to his ear. He could feel her breathing. "I'm Lilithmon now, handsome." She then pushed her lips onto Rei's.

Rei's cheeks flushed as she pulled back her head after the short kiss with a wicked smile, but then a look of shock spread across her face as her breathing suddenly grew heavy. She staggered backwards and eventually fell to the ground. Her body lit a bright white light and shrunk smaller and smaller. The light eventually disappeared and revealed an unconscious Plotmon.

Rei dropped to the ground, breathing heavily himself. His heart was racing. Whether it was from the kiss or whether it was from fear he did not know. It might have been a combination of the two. He shook his head to get his senses back together. After pocketing the device he pick up, he picked up Plotmon and walked over to Sheryl. He relaxed after confirming that she was still breathing. He left Plotmon lying next to Sheryl before walking over to the crater where the bird was. It was a pink bird with blue-tipped feathers. The golden rings it had were replaced by a single iron ring on its left leg. Rei carefully slid down the side of the hole to where the bird was and lifted it out of the crater by carrying it on his back. He placed the bird next to Sheryl and Plotmon. After catching his breath from hauling the bird, he looked around at the destruction. The ground was a mess. The school gates were smashed. Even part of the school building itself had a huge dent in it. He scanned across the windows and noticed there weren't any people left in the building.

They probably evacuated right when the attack started, he thought to himself.

Rei wasn't sure what to do now. Calling the police was probably the best option at the moment.

"Hello there."

Rei turned around to face a young man with short blonde hair and green eyes with glasses. He wore a blue shirt and white pants, as well as a black jacket with the letters 'D.M.S.' written on it.

He pulled out a device similar to the one Rei picked up, but it was turquoise instead of pink. "Would you mind looking here for a moment?"

A bright red light flashed into Rei's eyes, causing him to squint and stagger back. He held a hand over the device to block the light. "What's the big idea?"

The man showed an expression of shock and surprise, looking at his device and then back at Rei. He questioned himself about why there was no effect on the boy.

Pretending nothing major happened, he placed the device away. "Sorry about that. I'm William Hamilton." He held a hand out to shake Rei's hand.

Rei just looked at his hand, then back at his face. "What do you want with me?"

William gave a nervous laugh before retracting his hand. "Well, I'm a friend of the lady and the bird over there. I came to retrieve them."

"I see." Curiosity got the better of Rei as he asked, "What were those monsters? Especially that purple one; why did it come to attack us?"

William pressed his glasses to his face. "That…." He closed his eyes as if he was deciding on something. "Alright, I'll tell you, but not here. If you help me bring Sheryl back to our base, I'll explain things there." He looked over at Plotmon. "I'm assuming that's yours? We can get her treated as well."

Rei narrowed his eyes in doubt, but sighed in defeat. "Fine, I'll come along."

Rei helped William carry Sheryl, Plotmon, and the pink bird onto his truck a few yards away. Rei sat at the passenger seat with Plotmon in his arms while Sheryl and the bird were in the back seats.

As William started up the engine, he looked at Rei. "That's a cute Digimon. Where'd you find it?"

Digimon. That word again. Plotmon used it to describe herself when they met. Rei looked at William for a moment before turning his head back to face the windshield. "She was in a box near a sidewalk."

"I see…," William said as he began driving.

"Digimon…," Rei started. "Were the monster and bird also Digimon?"

"Yes, they were. I'm not sure what that purple one was, but the bird you saw was Hououmon(Phoenixmon). She turned back into Piyomon(Biyomon) though."

Piyomon must be that bird sitting in the back seat, Rei deducted.

"I thought Digimon were all like Plotmon," Rei started to speak his mind for no reason. "But then after seeing that thing, as well as that bird…" He placed a hand near his lips. "Lilithmon too; without the horns she looked just like a normal woman."

"Lilithmon?"

"Plotmon turned into Lilithmon like how Hououmon turned into Piyomon," Rei explained.

William was even more perplexed. He questioned how this boy was able to evolve a Digimon without a Digivice.

The rest of the trip was fairly silent until they began driving in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly, a panel of earth began to slant, revealing a hidden passageway within the ground. William drove into the hole. Within the hole was obviously manmade. It was a metal tunnel with lights attached to the walls. They eventually hit a clearing that looked like a parking lot. He parked the car and they carried the three unconscious members in through a glass door on what seemed to be just a wall. They walked through a couple metallic corridors before arriving to a room with beds and curtains. There were shelves with medicine as well as a couple of more complex beds with machines connected to them.

"This is the sickbay," William explained.

"Yeah, I'm not blind," Rei replied, placing Sheryl onto one of the beds.

"Oh, William, you're back."

Rei turned to see a woman near the doorway with short red hair and matching red eyes. She wore a red button blouse and black pants with a lab coat on. She gave off a very eerie aura around her, almost demonic.

"Morrigan," he smiled, "good timing." He pointed at Sheryl, Piyomon, and Plotmon. "I need you to treat these three."

She waved her hand. "Yeah yeah, I got it." She noticed Rei. "Who's the kid?"

"He was found at the battle site. He's the Plotmon's tamer."

"Ooh, fresh blood." She grinned, sending chills down Rei's spine. "Well, good luck, kid."

William made a gesture for Rei to come follow him. Rei obeyed and left Plotmon and the others to Morrigan's care. They continued along more corridors before arriving in a room with various consoles and a large screen on a wall. There was a woman sitting at the console and a middle-aged man sitting in a lone chair near the middle of the room. The most notable thing was that various monsters were walking around. There was a lion-human hybrid looking one near the man and a yellow one with a huge blue coat and a horn on its head serving tea to the woman. After all that has been going on, Rei automatically assumed these were all Digimon.

The man noticed William and Rei and rose from his seat. He was probably around his 50s and had a full gray beard to go along with his disheveled hair. He wore a longcoat done in the same fashion as William's jacket, but there were more medals and patches on it.

"Welcome back William. Did you manage to erase the memories of everyone who saw the battle?"

"Yes, I'm sure I got everyone, except this guy here." William patted Rei's shoulder.

The man looked over at Rei, scanning him from top to bottom. "I see…" He cleared his throat. "I'm Commander Robert Harlow of the Japanese D.M.S. Branch."

"…Rei Ichikawa. Student." Rei briefly introduced himself.

"Rei Ichi…zero and one. Just like binary." Robert found this amusing.

"I came because I was told there'd be an explanation about the Digimon fighting today."

Robert closed his eyes in thought. "Well, we're a bit busy at the moment trying to patch up that fight. Why don't you go the cafeteria and get something to eat and we'll get back to you in an hour or so."

Rei looked irritated, but agreed with a nod. William took Rei to the cafeteria, which looked exactly how one would expect a cafeteria to look. There were a couple of long tables with multiple chairs around each one. There was also a counter for ordering food.

"This base is pretty empty," Rei commented.

"Well, the Japanese branch was just created recently. We grabbed the few we could and ran over here. The only person in our team who's actually from here is Sheryl."

Who's not ever Japanese herself, Rei mused.

"You can grab something at the counter. I'm going to go for a bit." With a wave, William left the cafeteria.

Rei looked at the ordering counter, but decided to just sit down and wait.

"Oh, Rei."

He looked back to the doorway to see Sheryl, but she was in a pink shirt and black slacks with the same black jacket as William.

"Are you better now?" Rei asked.

"I just had the wind knocked out of me back there." She walked over to the ordering counter and came back in a few seconds with two cups in hand. She sat down across from Rei. "It's coke."

Rei nodded thanks before taking a sip of the carbonated drink. "Is that a uniform or something?" He looked at her clothes.

"Only the jacket; as long as we have that the rest of our clothes don't really matter." She took a sip of her own drink. "Um…sorry if this sounds rude, but why are you here?"

"That guy William said he'd explain more about the battle today to me, but hasn't done anything yet." He leaned back in his chair. "I've also met up with that old guy Robert. He said they were busy right now because of the battle and would talk to me later."

"That's…strange. Normally we'd just use the memory erase to wipe the minds of bystanders."

"It didn't work on him," William said. "I'm back, by the way." William walked toward them and sat in a chair next to Sheryl.

"Didn't work?" Sheryl seemed perplexed.

William ignored Sheryl. "Commander called you. Let's go back to the command room."

Rei downed the rest of his drink. "Lead the way."

The three of them proceeded back to the command room where Robert was waiting in his chair. He saw them enter, but didn't get up. He simply waved for them to come forward. They all did so.

"Rei," Robert said. "I want you to join the DMS."

"I'm not even sure what you guys do," Rei responded.

"William, if you will."

"Sure." William cleared his throat. "The Digimon Maintenance Squad, DMS for short, is a special group from the military to handle any and all Digimon-related problems. Our main objective is to keep Digimon a secret to the main public so they can live normal lives."

"Not interested," Rei promptly replied. "I don't want to be a soldier."

"You don't have much of a choice at the moment." Robert said. "You have witnessed Digimon, and for reasons unknown we cannot erase the memory of Digimon from your mind. Therefore the only way to keep you under control is to have you as a member of the DMS."

Rei gritted his teeth. "Bastard…"

"Just throw him in the brig or something till he gets rots." A high-pitched voice said from the door.

"Meilin…" Sheryl softly said.

In the door way was a little girl probably only around 140 cm tall. She had long blue hair in pigtails and green eyes. She wore a blue shirt and black slacks with the black jacket everyone else wore.

"There's no way I, Meilin Lee, am letting a guy like him join DMS on the drop of a hat!" She pointed wrathfully at Rei.


	4. Second Encounter

**AUTHOR NOTE: Please read the AUTHOR NOTE on the first page if you have not done so yet.**

**

* * *

**Chapter 4

Second Encounter

* * *

"Meilin, stand down. Your opinion is of no concern here," Robert ordered.

Meilin bit her lip, holding in her rage.

Robert looked at Sheryl. "Take Rei home today and fill him in on what we do."

Sheryl nodded. "Yes sir."

"Oh yes." Robert looked back at Rei. "Your Digimon seems to have awoken. It was only exhausted, so there shouldn't be any major injuries."

Rei groaned, but understood his position. If these people were really from the military, they would really silence him if need be. He looked at Robert. "Roger that."

Sheryl and Rei left the room, passing by a furious Meilin.

After they made some distance from the command room, Rei finally asked, "What's with the kid?"

"She may be small, but she's only around three years younger than you," Sheryl replied. "And sorry about pushing this onto you, but it was needed." She stepped forward in front of him with a bright smile as she walked backwards. "But don't worry! We're a fun bunch; not military-like at all."

"I see." The way they worked definitely wasn't what you would normally see when you thought of the military.

"Morrigan!" Sheryl greeted to the redheaded doctor.

Morrigan was smoking a cigarette with her feet on her desk and her blouse completely open, revealing her black and purple lace bra. Rei's face flushed a bit while his eyes shifted away.

"Morrigan!" Sheryl repeated, but in a scolding tone.

"Rei!" For out of nowhere Plotmon jumped into Rei's arms.

"Hey," Rei grabbed the dog Digimon and looked at her. "How do you feel?"

"Great!" She grinned.

"Aw, what a cute Digimon!" Sheryl patted Plotmon on the head.

"I'm Plotmon!" She introduced herself.

"I'm Sheryl Clyne, your tamer's homeroom teacher," Sheryl introduced back.

The image of Lilithmon suddenly flashed in Rei mind as well as the feeling of her lips on his own. Rei felt a bit uneasy as he looked at Plotmon. "Hey…do you remember what happened while you were transformed?"

"Transformed?" She thought for a moment. "I can only remember a little bit of it. I know we drove away the bad Digimon, but I'm not too sure how we managed to do it. That part of my memory's a bit fuzzy."

"Transformed?" Sheryl wondered. "You evolved without a Digivice?"

"Digivice?" Rei asked.

"It's a device that the DMS tamers have. It's used for evolving Digimon amongst other uses."

Rei pulled out the pink device from his pocket. "This thing?"

"That's my Digivice!" Sheryl swept it from Rei's hands. "I thought I lost it!"

"It bumped into my foot during the fight." He pondered a bit. "Now that I think about it, Plotmon changed into Lilithmon shortly after I grabbed it."

"That shouldn't be possible. Digivices are assigned to tamers. You can't use it for evolving without a retinal scan beforehand from the designated tamer."

"Don't ask me." He stared off to the side.

Sheryl gave a small smile. "Oh well." She hooked the Digivice onto one of the belt holes on her pants. "Let's go over to the supermarket and then your house. I'll explain about DMS over dinner."

Rei looked up at a clock on the wall. 6:35. Was it already that late?

The two of them exited the building into the parking lot, where Meilin was standing, waiting for them with her arms cross and a vicious glare. The two of them stopped. She pointed at Rei, "I challenge you to a duel! I won't accept you as a member of DMS!"

Sheryl stepped forward. "Meilin! Don't say stupid things! You know there's no way Rei's Digimon has a chance against Dorumon!"

"Another reason for this is that the reports said that Plotmon managed to drive away the hostile Digimon that appeared in the real world. I refuse to believe such a thing. How can Hououmon be defeated but not that puny thing?"

"Let's go. I don't have time to play with kids." Rei sighed as he took a step to leave.

"Humph. You're a wimp. Even more reason a weak good-for-nothing like you can't be in the DMS," Meilin insulted.

"Whatever…" Rei just shrugged it off.

"I'll fight!" Plotmon shouted, bearing her teeth at Meilin. "Don't make fun of Rei!"

Rei turned around, "Ignore her. She's just a dumb kid."

"No!" Plotmon held her ground. "I'm ready!"

Meilin just laughed. "You have a nice bark, but without the bite there's no point! Dorumon!"

A purple Digimon covered in fur suddenly jumped out and assaulted Plotmon, but she jumped back in time to dodge the attack. The Digimon had white furred limps, sharp ears that looked like horns, and a large furry tail. The most notable thing about the Digimon was the large red crystal embedded in its forehead.

"Plotmon! Stop!" Rei ordered.

"Dash Metal!" Dorumon rushed forward with its pointed ears at Plotmon.

"Sledge Dash!" Plotmon rammed back.

The two of them smashed into each other, causing them both to stagger back. Being more experienced, Dorumon was the first to recover. "Metal Cannon!" It fired multiple metal balls from its mouth.

"Puppy Howling!" Plotmon let out a desperation attack as she howled aimlessly forward. Her attack managed to crush the metal balls, making them smaller, but they still hit her, causing her fly back and crash into a pillar.

"Not bad…," Meilin complemented indifferently. "But it's time to take the gloves off."

She pulled out a blue Digivice in the same design as the previous ones Rei seen. She held the screen in front of her face. "Retinal Scan!" A red light swept across her eyes.

TAMER CONFIRMED

She held the Digivice forward. "No holding back! Warp Evolution!"

WARP EVOLUTION

"Dorumon, Warp Evolve!" Dorumon announced.

Dorumon became incased with a white light as the light changed shape. It became bigger and bigger until it was around three meters tall. The light dispersed, revealing a metal armored warrior with golden lining on its armor. It had armored wings on its back and a tattered blue cape. The large Digimon looked straight at Plotmon.

"Alphamon!" He stepped back, pushing back his cape with his hand.

"Damn it, I knew something like this was going to happen…!" Rei muttered to himself.

He knew that while Meilin was small, she was obviously a more experienced tamer than Rei was. It came to no surprise that she had access to such power.

A magical array appeared before Alphamon, as light converged into the center of the array. "Seiken Gradalpha!"

Before it could fire the light, Sheryl stepped between Alphamon and Plotmon, looking fairly relaxed.

"Sheryl…! Get out of the way!" Meilin screamed.

"You've proven your point, haven't you?" Sheryl calmly asked. "You've shown that you're powerful enough to squash a bug. Are you satisfied now?"

Meilin showed a look of disgust toward herself after taking Sheryl's words into her heart. She was so caught up that she realized she was just showing off her power to a weak enemy.

She closed her eyes to calm down, then sighed. "Alphamon, we're leaving." She turned around. "It seems that the report was false. There's no way you could've driven that Digimon away."

Meilin began to walk away with Dorumon, who turned back from Alphamon, followed her.

After they were out of sight, Rei walked up to Plotmon and simply stared at her.

Plotmon slowly looked up at Rei, then looked saddened. "Are you angry?"

Rei closed his eyes. "Yes, I am."

Plotmon lowered her head. "I'm sorry! I won't lose next time!"

Rei stomped the ground, causing Plotmon to jump from surprise. "That's not why I'm angry. I'm angry because you're just an idiot who wants to show off."

Plotmon looked up at Rei. "Huh…?"

Rei opened his eyes and looked at Plotmon. "What's the point of showing you're strong? Do you get anything for it? It's pointless…"

Sheryl looked at Rei and Plotmon and just smiled before clapping her hands to get their attention. "Alright, that's enough. I'm sure Plotmon has learned her lesson."

The two of them looked away from each other, both of them a bit ashamed.

Sheryl walked over to a red sports car. "Let's go get some ingredients, shall we?"

They all entered the car as they drove off to the supermarket. Along the way, Sheryl asked Rei, "Anything particular you want to eat?"

"Anything's fine…," He blandly replied.

"Don't be like that!" She laughed. "Think of it as a celebration for joining DMS, or an apology for joining DMS. Both of them work in your case."

Rei let out a small chuckle. "Hamburger steaks then. I haven't had those in a while."

Sheryl giggled. "Hamburger steaks it is! I can cook a mean steak, so be prepared!"

Rei simply waved, indicating his lack of interest.

* * *

After they all returned to Rei's house, Sheryl worked dutifully in the kitchen, working up a delicious smell into the air. Rei was simply sitting on the couch watching TV with Plotmon on his lap.

Around half an hour later, Sheryl's voice called from the kitchen that dinner was ready. On the table were three plates of hamburger steaks topped off with a flower-shaped sunny-side up egg on each one.

Cute, Rei sarcastically thought.

The three of them started eating, with Plotmon eating while standing on the table. During the meal, Sheryl began explaining about the many aspects of DMS and various rules that came with working for DMS.

After she finished explaining, she took another bite from her steak. "That's the gist of it. Any questions?"

Rei leaned back, done with his steak. "So basically just beat up Digimon in this world so we can send them back to the Digital World."

"In short, I guess. Also, one final and important note." Sheryl pulled out a pistol from her jacket. "I shouldn't have to tell you what this is. It's not any special pistol either. Just your average gun." She tapped it a few times. "This will work on Digimon as well, but unlike having a Digimon defeat another Digimon, conventional weapons like this will simply delete the Digimon. Digimon are data beings, meaning that if they die, they simply return back to their egg form. Think of it as reincarnation. Using a real world weapon against a Digimon is basically stripping away that Digimon's future forever. So don't use these unless it's absolutely necessary, okay?"

He nodded. "I see. Alright." He then stared at Sheryl. "Don't tell me I need to carry one of these around from now on…"

"You're an officer now. Of course you are." She grinned halfheartedly.

Before Rei could give a response, a beeping sound was heard. Sheryl pulled out her Digivice and pressed a few buttons.

"A Digimon has appeared. Meilin's confronting it now. While I don't think she needs any help, it'd probably be best if I go as well." She pulled the gun back into her jacket.

"You need me to tag along?" Rei questioned.

"No, stay here. You don't have a Digivice yet so it's dangerous. I'll be back later." Sheryl quickly slipped on her shoes and rushed out the door. The sound of her car engine roared from outside the house as the sound slowly faded as she drove farther away.

"Rei…it's that Digimon again," Plotmon said in a daze.

"That Digimon?" The image of the purple horned Digimon flashed in his head. "You mean the one from this afternoon?"

"Yes…I don't know why, but I know it's him." Plotmon looked down. "What should we do?"

Rei remembered how Sheryl's Hououmon was defeated by that purple Digimon. "If Sheryl's Digimon couldn't handle it, Meilin's Digimon might not be able to handle it either."

He closed his eyes, debating with himself whether he should go or not. Even if he did go, what help could he provide? Plotmon wasn't that powerful, and he had no idea how Plotmon turned into Lilithmon.

"I want to go. I want to go see that Digimon." Plotmon started to walk for the door. "That Digimon…I don't know why. He seems so familiar to me…"

"It's dangerous there. You remember what that thing could do." Rei closed his eyes. "Are you sure?'

"Yes…I am."

After a short silence, Rei opened his eyes. "I'll grab my bike. It'll be faster than if you ran the way there."

After grabbing his bike and locking up the house, he rode off as quickly as he could. Plotmon was holding firmly onto Rei's shoulder while she instructed him on where to go.

* * *

Upon arriving at the site, the destruction of it all was very clear. It was in the near empty park. Various holes and craters were scattered around the field. Trees were knocked down and burned along with the destroyed streetlamps and benches. The only sources of light were from the moon in the sky and a few lamps that managed to stay lit. Sitting underneath one of the surviving lights was Meilin sitting on the ground, gripping onto something tightly.

Rei jumped off his bike as he ran over to Meilin. "What happened here?"

Meilin was in no condition to speak as her sobbing words were all too difficult to make anything out of. The object she was holding was a large egg with some patterns around it along with her Digivice clutched in one of her hands.

"This is a digi-egg," Plotmon explained. "It's what Digimon turn into when we're defeated in battle."

Rei remembered what Sheryl said about Digimon never dying, and just being reborn.

This is probably what she meant, Rei thought to himself.

"So this is probably that Digimon that Meilin used against us," Rei said. He then remembered about Sheryl. "Where's Ms. Clyne?"

"Over there!" Plotmon shouted.

Rei looked over to where Plotmon was facing to see Sheryl barely evade a punch from the same Digimon from the afternoon.

Rei grimaced. "Damn it…why couldn't it just stay out of our way?" He gripped a fist. "We can't beat that thing…!"

The enemy Digimon noticed Rei and Plotmon and suddenly lost interest in Sheryl as he slowly hovered toward them like last time.

"Puppy Howling!" Plotmon roared.

The purple Digimon winced a bit from the attack. While the effect lasted for only a few moments, it gave Rei enough time to pick up Meilin and start running away.

"We have to get out of here!" Rei shouted to Plotmon, who was running beside him. He looked over at Plotmon. "Didn't you have something you wanted to do when you cam here?"

"I don't know, I just wanted to see him," Plotmon weakly said.

"Damn it!" Rei tried to run faster, but he tripped on a branch from a fallen tree.

He was about to fall straight down, but managed to turn to his back upon hitting the ground, keeping Meilin and her egg safe.

"Rei!" Plotmon stopped running.

"What are you doing? Get out of here!" Rei shouted.

"Flame Inferno!" The winged Digimon unleashed a hellfire straight at Rei and Plotmon.

Rei and Plotmon winced, awaiting the impact. At that moment, the ring around Rei's neck began to glow, and the screen on Meilin's Digivice lit up.

EVOLUTION BYPASS

A barrier of light surrounded Rei, Meilin and Plotmon as it deflected the fire to all other directions. As if in fear, the attacking Digimon slowly backed away before flying away.

Rei and Plotmon both slowly reopened their eyes, seeing no sign of the Digimon, but were fine despite the flames that were scattered all around them, crackling as the burned the wood from the trees. The screen on Meilin's Digivice returned to its blank state.

"What…happened…?" Rei wondered.

"I don't know…but I think we're safe…" Plotmon look around.

"Rei! Are you okay?" Sheryl's voice cried from across the flames.

"Yeah!" Rei shouted back a reply.

"Don't move! I'll call for help!" Sheryl began to press various buttons on her Digivice as she contacted DMS for assistance.

* * *

Within the next few hours DMS had come to pick everyone up and erased the memories all who were unfortunately enough to witness the events. The fire was to be reported as a simple fire that a child had lit, although since the fire was of abnormal properties, they had to extinguish it immediately before anyone would notice. Rei and the others were all taken back to DMS for treatment.

In the sickbay, Rei pulled back on his school shirt and blazer.

"You don't have anything wrong going on with you," Morrigan reported while sitting back in her chair. "It's surprising how you managed to survive against an attack from a Digimon of that caliber."

Rei didn't witness it, so he wasn't sure how he managed to stay alive either. He simply shrugged. "I don't know." He looked over at the digi-egg Meilin was clutching. It was in one of the more elaborate beds with more electronics attached to it. "Will that thing be okay?"

"That's a Data Bed for Digimon to recover in," she explained absentmindedly. "Dorumon didn't die or anything, just returned to its egg state. We just have to wait till it hatches." She looked over at Rei. "Although, when a Digimon returns to the egg state, they lose all memories they had of their previous life. It's unlikely Dorumon will remember Meilin when he's reborn."

Rei didn't really feel any remorse since he barely knew the Digimon and Meilin, but felt that he should. "I'm leaving."

"Everyone's in the cafeteria," Morrigan informed Rei before he left.

He waved as a sign of thanks before leaving the sickbay.

He walked down the corridors and arrived in the familiar large room with many tables. Occupying one of the tables were William, Sheryl, Meilin, and Plotmon. Meilin was slowly drinking some soup while Sheryl and William simply stared at her.

When Rei pulled a chair out from under the table, the sound caused all of them to look at him except for Meilin. Rei sat down and looked at Meilin. "What is this?"

Everyone turned back to Meilin. "She hasn't said a word since we came back. We're glad she's eating, but losing her Digimon must've been a shock to her," Sheryl explained.

Rei glared at the girl staring blankly at her soup. He looked at her in disgust. "You're pathetic."

"Rei!" Sheryl shouted angrily at him.

He ignored Sheryl. "Just a few hours ago, you were all high and mighty. Showing off how strong you were. What about now? Where'd all that pride go? You're a mess. Admit it, without your Digimon, you can't do shit. You're just a stupid girl who can't even drink her soup properly."

"Rei, that's enough!" Sheryl began to stand, but William placed a hand on her shoulder.

Meilin didn't look up but continued to look at her soup and slowly drank it.

Rei scowled. He quickly stood up from his seat and leaned over the table to grab Meilin by the collar. He pulled her closer and knocked over her soup all over the table. "Are you gonna take that?" He roared at her.

She continued to look blankly at nothing, completely ignoring him.

Rei raised his other hand and slapped her across the face, leaving a large red bruise on her white skin. When she didn't respond he did it again. "Listen to me when I talk to you!"

He pulled her face so close to his that they were only about a centimeter apart. "Your Digimon isn't dead! He's still here! You lost a battle! So what? Who hasn't failed before? You know what you do? You stand up! You're just a stupid kid sulking because you don't know shit about the real world! Get a damn grip already!"

Finally, her eyes shifted to look at him. Her mouth began to move as to speak, but no words came out.

"I can't hear you!" Rei slapped her face again. This time she winced and gave a small cry as her eyes began to tear up.

"Dorumon is…he…" She finally spoke, albeit just a mumble.

Rei pushed her back into her seat. "Come back and talk to me after you wake up a bit more." Rei stormed out of the room with Plotmon following him.

William gave a small smile. "What an intense man. Where did those kinds of people get to when we created this organization? I remember people like him when I was in training."

Sheryl slumped down and looked at the sobbing Meilin holding her swollen cheek. "I guess he's the only one who tried to treat her like an adult." Sheryl looked down. "I don't think I would have had the guts to hit a little girl like that."

William leaned back in his chair and adjusted his glasses. "Rei Ichikawa…he's an interesting one."

The next day, Rei woke up a bit later than usual due to having no school while the repairs were still being done after the Digimon attack. He wasn't sure what the cover up story was, but he didn't really care either. After grabbing a shirt and pants to wear, he looked in his fridge for breakfast, but found that there wasn't anything. The food Sheryl bought yesterday night was all used up on the same day and he forgot to buy more food that day. He groaned. "I guess I'll go out to eat today."

At that moment, the doorbell rang. Rei wondered who it could've been as he walked toward the door. He opened the door half awake. "Yeah?"

Standing in the doorway was Meilin. She wore a blue vest over a black shirt and a pair of tight jeans and pink sneakers.

They stared at each other for a moment before Rei spoke up. "I see you're better now."

"My cheek still stings a bit," she snapped back.

He smirked. "I see. Why are you here?"

She lifted up a box she was holding. "Here, your jacket."

He grabbed the box. "Thanks, I guess."

"Bye." She turned around to leave.

"Wait."

She stopped and looked at him. "What?"

Rei went inside and wrote a note to leave on the table. He then grabbed a coat lying around on the couch. "You have breakfast yet?"

"N…no…," She replied, slightly embarrassed.

He pulled on his dried shoes and locked up the front door after he left the house. "Let's go get something to eat. My treat."

She glared at him. "Why should I go eat with you?"

He looked over at her. "Think of it as repayment for the soup yesterday."

They continued to look at each other until both their stomachs growled by coincidence.

She blushed. "W-Well, if you _really_ insist…I guess I can go eat with you."

Rei smiled. "Let's go then."


	5. Mission

**Author Notes: If you have not read it yet, please read the Author Notes in the first chapter.

* * *

**

Chapter 5

Mission

* * *

It was around a week after the second incident with the unknown Digimon. Nothing really happened since then, he was suddenly called back to DMS. Rei looked out the window of Sheryl's car. She offered him a ride back to DMS since he didn't know the way himself. He was wearing the black jacket that every member of DMS seemed to have some variation of. Plotmon was in the back seat sleeping.

"I wonder what's going on," Sheryl pondered. "I wasn't told the reason why we're all meeting up today."

Rei didn't reply, but he was just as curious as Sheryl was.

After a long quiet ride to the base, they all arrived in the command room. Meilin and Robert were there waiting for them. Piyomon was there as well. She recovered a few days ago, but had to stay in DMS for further recovering.

Rei turned to Robert. "So what's with the sudden call?"

Robert nodded. "After some analysis, we have determined who the mysterious Digimon is." He nodded to the girl at the console who nodded back and pressed some buttons to display an image of the Digimon everyone fought before. "This is Daemon, an Ultimate level Virus type Digimon."

"Ultimate level?" Rei asked.

"The highest level of evolution for a Digimon. Alphamon and Hououmon were both Ultimate level Digimon." Sheryl briefly explained.

"That's correct, but this is no ordinary Digimon. He has some power to alter the data of Digimon themselves. Meilin, if you'd please." He looked over at the girl.

Meilin stepped forward and faced everyone. "Daemon has an ability which we have named 'Dark Virus.' Dark Virus allowed Daemon to freely edit the data composition of Digimon. In an example, Alphamon reverted back to egg form from Daemon's assault. After analysis, we determined it was because Daemon had altered Alphamon so his X-Antibody was removed. Dorumon is a Digimon that requires an X-Antibody to exist, so when it was removed, he was forced to return to egg form."

"How is he?" Sheryl asked.

"He's fine. Dorumon's forms can produce their own X-Antibodies, so we just have to wait until he recreates it again before he'll hatch." Meilin seemed to have a relieved smile giving the news, but it quickly returned to a serious expression. "That has nothing to do with today's briefing though."

"Question. Why doesn't that Digimon just use his power everywhere if it's so easy for him?" Rei inquired.

"Humph, I guess even someone like you can ask a few good questions sometimes. The answer is that we don't know. The best guess we can give is that Daemon either still isn't aware of this ability, or that it has not developed enough to be controlled at will."

"Because of this ability, Daemon is a dangerous Digimon that must be stopped," Robert began speaking again as Meilin returned to her spot. "The chance of it still having this ability upon egg reversion is very unlikely, so we must find it and destroy it. That is why I have gathered you today." He looked at Rei and Sheryl. "You two are the only members with Digimon that are capable of battling. We will send you both to the Digital World and have you find Daemon and defeat it."

"Wait a second, Commander." Sheryl stepped forward. "Plotmon can't evolve yet and Piyomon has lost her evolving abilities after the battle with Daemon. We can't defeat an Ultimate Digimon with only two Childs."

Rei looked over at Sheryl. He was not aware that Piyomon couldn't evolve anymore after the first encounter with Daemon.

Robert nodded. "That is true, but this is of the utmost importance. Even if you cannot defeat it, you must at least find it. It was a silver of luck we discovered it returned to the Digital World, but we won't know whether it will strike again. We must at least know its location before anything drastic happens."

"So you don't want us to defeat it, you just want us to find it?" Rei asked.

"Defeating it is of the highest priority, but if you feel you are not able to, reporting its location to us will be sufficient for now."

"Commander, can't we request backup from the other branches to defeat this Digimon?" Sheryl asked.

"They're all busy with their own problems at the moment. Whether or not they're as big as ours is still unconfirmed, but they currently aren't able to supply any units for us. We also haven't informed them of our recent handicap. We're a newly formed branch, and having ourselves suddenly handicapped would bring a poor reputation."

"No way…" Sheryl's shoulders slumped.

Reputation, how pointless, Rei though.

Meilin stepped forward again. "I'll join all of you once Dorumon reaches back to a state where it can at least battle, even if it's just the first baby state."

"Baby?" Rei asked.

"The lowest level of a Digimon after it's born." Sheryl explained.

Meilin sighed. "Okay, before you ask any more stupid questions, we'll go over evolution right now."

Rei looked a bit irritated, but said nothing.

"All Digimon are born as eggs. We call this the Egg state. After the Digimon hatches, we call this state Baby 1. It will then evolve into the Baby 2 state. Afterward it will reach the Child state. This is the most stable state of a Digimon in the real world. All the further states are too difficult to keep a hold on in the real world."

"Is that why Daemon retreated despite having a clear advantage?" Rei inquired.

"Well, according to reports, it was because your Plotmon somehow evolved into a Digimon too powerful for Daemon, but I refuse to believe that. The only logical explanation would be, as you said, that Daemon had to retreat to the Digital World. Although it would be the first occurrence of a Digimon having the ability to move back and forth between worlds at will."

"Is that all the questions left?" Robert asked. "If not, you are all dismissed until 1800 hours where we will send Rei and Sheryl to the Digital World."

They all remained silent, so Robert nodded and dismissed them all.

* * *

In the cafeteria, Rei sat there with the two girls and Digimon while they all had something to drink to pass the time.

"Have both of you entered the Digital World already?" Plotmon asked Sheryl and Meilin.

"No, we haven't. If there's no trouble there, it's rare for DMS to investigate," Sheryl replied.

"Since it's a new land, there have obviously been scouts to enter the area, but most of them probably weren't excepting to get killed by the Digimon," Meilin added on.

"Killed?" Rei wondered.

"Most Digimon of Vaccine and Data attributes aren't aggressive types, but Virus Digimon have been known to be more sadistic compared to the other two types. They normally won't have problems torturing and killing humans and other Digimon. The Digital World is a dangerous place. You probably would only be able to survive in areas with Child Digimon unless you had a Digimon of your own. That's why we're dropping you off in a nursery for the beginning of your journey."

"What?"

"When Digimon are defeated, they turn back to eggs instead of being killed in the literal sense. Nurseries are basically reset points to raise these egg Digimon until they return to a state where they stand a fighting chance."

"I haven't been there myself, but from what we've heard the nursery areas are very safe. You should normally be fine in them."

Rei took a sip of his soda while thinking about the Digital World. He looked over to Plotmon. "How about your view?"

"Hmm…" She swayed her head left and right before replying. "I was born there, so I can't really compare it to here, but since I never really left my village, I never really had a problem with attackers. Plus we had strong Digimon to guard our village."

"Sounds primitive," Meilin commented.

Sheryl slammed her cup of coffee down after chugging it. "It'll be fine! We just have to do our best!"

Meilin sighed. "Well, we can't do much about it. I guess just try not to get killed."

* * *

After getting their things ready, they all met to the transportation room. Rei and Sheryl had both changed into a t-shirt, red and pink respectively, as well as into black slacks along with the jacket they both were already wearing. Rei had never been to the transportation room before and curiously looked around. There was a large circular machine in the middle of the room with another round machine of the same radius attached to the ceiling. Consoles were scattered all around the walls showing different data and drawings.

Meilin stepped forward in front of the circular machine. "This is the transporter. You and your Digimon are going to step into this and get sent to the Digital World."

The woman from the command room walked over with two large sacks. "These are some rations while you're in the Digital World. Try and find food even when you have some left, since you never know when you'll be in a dire situation." She pulled out another object. It was a Digivice, but was red this time. "This is a Digivice for you to use." She handed it to Rei. "It has been registered with the data we received from you a few days ago. I assume Sheryl has already informed you how to use it."

Rei took the Digivice with a nod and hooked it to his a belt hole.

"Rei, I should say this before we set out." Sheryl looked at Rei worryingly. "You don't have any military training, so I'm assuming you don't know how to forage and hunt for food. Plus it's the Digital World, so I don't know if I'll be any help, but we should stick together for the whole trip."

Rei nodded. "Alright."

Rei, Sheryl, Plotmon, and Piyomon all stepped onto the machine.

"As I said before, I'll join you guys after Dorumon hatches," Meilin reminded them as she stepped over to a console. "Ready?"

Rei and the others nodded.

"Okay…transport!" After typing a few things onto the console, Meilin pressed a button.

Sudden crackling shot through the room as what looked like green sparks of electricity started to circle around the group. Their bodies slowly became transparent and split into floating blocks, before a large blinding flash occurred. When the light subsided, the four of them were gone.

Meilin fearfully stared at the console. "Something went wrong…!"

* * *

Rei slowly opened his eyes to see small heads looking at him. He slowly sat up as he took in his surroundings. It was a colorful area with large colored boxes. The ground was also colored squares. "What is this place?" He looked back at the small bouncing heads staring curiously at him.

"This is the Vert Nursery."

The voice came from some giant green plant monster with a sunflower for a head.

"Who are you?" Rei stood up and walked over to the Digimon.

"I am Sunflowmon, the caretaker of this nursery. I have been informed by DMS of your arrival." It looked around. "But…you seem to be along. I was told there would be another human and two Digimon."

Rei quickly spun around, darting his eyes left and right. Sunflowmon was right. Rei was the only one in the area that came from the real world. He grimaced.

Remembering one of the functions of the Digivice, he used its communication function to try and contact Meilin and Sheryl, but there was no response.

"Are you alright, human?" Sunflowmon asked worryingly.

"Yeah…no, I don't think I'm alright at all." Rei clenched his fist in frustration.


	6. Reliving the First Time

**Author Notes: If you have not yet, please read the Author Notes in the first chapter.

* * *

**

Chapter 6

Reliving the First Time

* * *

"Sheryl, wake up," Piyomon said while shaking Sheryl's unconscious body.

"What…what happened?" Sheryl opened her eyes and sat up. She looked around. "This isn't the nursery." They were in the middle of an open field. There wasn't much other than grass and a tree here and there.

"I don't know where we are, but it's probably dangerous out here."

Sheryl nodded thoughtfully. "Well, we should scout the area rather than just stay here."

Piyomon nodded in agreement as the two of them started off to a random direction.

"Where are Rei and Plotmon?" Sheryl wondered.

"They weren't with us when I woke up."

"I hope they safely arrived at the nursery…"

"Sheryl, look!"

Sheryl looked up to see that they were at the top of a hill, since below them was a large field of flowers with a small group of buildings amongst them.

"A village…it's risky, but we should go take a look." Sheryl suggested.

The two of them slowly climbed down the steep downhill slope from the hill they were on to reach the village.

Upon a closer look, most of the flowers seemed to be destroyed with their petals either almost or completely stripped of from the stems. When they entered the village, there were no inhabitants.

"The village is…empty?" Sheryl wondered as they both looked around.

They looked through the various crudely built wooden buildings for anyone, but found no one. Sheryl looked at the ground, walls, and tables before leaving the final home they entered.

"These homes are definitely occupied. It's as if they were suddenly abandoned when we came…" She looked over to see Piyomon pecking at some kind of green plant sprouting from the dirt.

Sheryl suddenly pondered a bit. "A fresh green plant…from the dirt?" She saw that there were more of these plants around them, mainly near the houses. "Wait a second…"

She pointed at the plant Piyomon was pecking on. "Piyomon! Attack that plant!"

Piyomon looked at her strangely, but nodded. "Hard Beak!" With an iron-hardened beak, she rapidly pecked the plant.

"Ow ow ow ow ow ow!" The plant popped out. It seemed to be the antenna of a round green and white Digimon with large brown eyes and stubby feet.

Sheryl sighed. "You all don't have to hide anymore. We aren't here to cause trouble. We're just a bit lost."

Each of the plants slowly arose as the same type of Digimon. They all walked over to Sheryl and Piyomon, muttering to themselves about various things.

Two very different Digimon walked forward. They seemed to have been hiding somewhere. One of them looked somewhat like a reptile with a tropical flower blooming from its head, while the other one had flowers for hands and a red petal helmet on.

"I'm Floramon." The second one said.

"I'm Palmon." The first one said.

"We're the guardians of this village. What are you doing here?" They said simultaneously.

"I'm Sheryl Clyne, and this is Piyomon. We were supposed to arrive at Vert Nursery, but found ourselves here instead," Sheryl explained. "You don't seem to want us here, so if you can direct us there, it would really help."

The two of them looked at each other, then at Sheryl and Piyomon. They slowly dropped their guard. "Vert Nursery is nearby from here, but you have to cross the forest to get there. It's not somewhere a human and a Child Digimon can venture in," Palmon said.

"No way…" Sheryl sighed.

"If you want, you can stay here for the night while you think about what you want to do," Floramon offered. "You don't seem to be enemies, so it's alright."

"Enemies?" Piyomon wondered. "Is there something attacking this village?"

Palmon nodded. "The evil Ogre Brothers are constantly terrorizing the village and taking young Tanemon for their food."

Tanemon must be these small Digimon, Sheryl thought to herself. They were probably only Baby 2 level. It may also be why the surrounding flowers were all near destroyed.

After being introduced into the largest building, they all had some dinner, or at least Sheryl thought it was dinner, since it was dark outside. What they ate didn't look too natural, but still tasted fine to both Sheryl and Piyomon. Plus, the less she had to use her sack of food, the better.

When dinner was finished, Sheryl watched the Tanemon playing around a campfire. It looked peaceful to her as if it was children playing at home. Piyomon was pretending to be a monster as she chased the Tanemon trying to peck at their heads.

Palmon sat beside Sheryl to watch the Tanemon. "It's been a while since I've seen the Tanemon this happy. It must be because of a new friend."

"I'm guessing those Ogre Brothers are a big problem," Sheryl said.

"Yes…We aren't sure when they started to attack, but since then we have been under their reign of terror. We never know when they become hungry again and attack, so we are constantly in fear."

Sheryl looked back at the Tanemon, only thinking about how she wanted to protect them all from whatever was terrorizing them.

* * *

After playing around, everyone went to sleep, but Sheryl was quietly shaken awake in the middle of the night. She opened her eyes but couldn't see anything because of the darkness.

"Sheryl, wake up," Floramon's voice said softly.

"What's going-mmghmm!" Sheryl mouth was quickly covered by one of Floramon's flower hands.

"Please be quiet. The Ogre Brothers have come. You must leave." A square light appeared from the darkness. It was a hidden panel in the wall.

"What about everyone else?" Sheryl asked in a whisper.

"Palmon has gone to inform the Tanemon." Floramon went over to wake up Piyomon.

"I understand." Sheryl nodded, although it was too dark to see her nod.

"Eek!"

Sheryl quickly stood up upon hearing the scream. She looked out one of the windows to see a large human-looking Digimon grasping a bone in one hand and a Tanemon in the other under the star-lit sky.

"Oh no! We have to go save her!" Sheryl exclaimed; her voice still in a whisper.

"We can't! We must leave before it spots us!" Floramon sharply replied.

"How can you abandon your friends like that?" Sheryl turned around to Floramon.

"I want to protect them…but we don't have a chance! We must leave them!"

"Piyomon! We're going to save that Tanemon!" Sheryl slammed open the front door.

"Right!" Piyomon followed suit.

"Stop! You'll be killed!" Floramon hissed, but was too scared to go after them.

The Digimon's attention quickly darted to the sound of Sheryl and Piyomon leaving the house.

"Stop what you're doing right now!" Sheryl shouted. She pulled out her Digivice. "Let's go! Retinal Scan!" A red light swept across her eyes from the Digivice.

TAMER CONFIRMED

She held her Digivice out. "Evolution!"

COMMAND UNKNOWN

"What…?" Sheryl looked at her Digivice to only see the error message blink before her eyes. She suddenly remembered that Piyomon couldn't evolve anymore.

She looked back up at the Digimon who slowly walked toward her. It had green skin and had various iron equipment and buckles on. Sheryl remembered fighting a Digimon like this before. "Ogremon!"

Ogremon took a bite out of the Tanemon it had in its hand. Its body ripped into two as the broken portion showed distorted data blocks instead of flesh that you would see from an animal from the real world. The plant Digimon itself was very much dead already from the bite, as its half-remaining face appeared wide eyed with no emotion. It proceeded to finish off the rest of the Tanemon, leaving only the antenna as Ogremon tossed it away like an apple core.

Sheryl watched wide eyed at the scene. She had never seen a Digimon devour another Digimon until now. Although she knew the Tanemon would be reborn as an egg, the sight of it all still shocked and disgusted her.

"Sheryl! Behind you!" Piyomon warned her.

Snapping out of her trance-state, she quickly dodged what looked like an ice club from a Digimon that resembled a blue Ogremon. Another Ogremon, this time orange, stepped out of the shadows as well. The three Ogremon stared down at Sheryl and Piyomon.

"We're outnumbered and outclassed…," Sheryl said to herself. She knew Ogremon was at least an Adult level Digimon, meaning the other two should have been around there as well.

"A human…," the blue one said, licking its lips.

"I can't believe you missed, Hyogamon," the orange one roared at the blue one.

"Why don't you just shut the hell up, Fugamon!" the blue one roared back.

"Both of you shut up!" Ogremon stomped its foot. "It's a good opportunity to taste human. I can't wait."

"That thing's not enough for all three of us," Fugamon pointed out. "There's no way I'm going to share the human with you two."

"Hey! Who said you would have it? I'll be the one to eat the human!" Hyogamon said.

"I'll be the one to eat the human!" Ogremon added in.

Sheryl observed the three of them. They may have been brothers, but they had a horrible time working with each other. Each of them was selfish and easily enraged. If only I can use this to my advantage, Sheryl thought.

She saw the Tanemon and Palmon slowly trying to escape from the village. This is good, Sheryl mused. The brothers were distracted at the moment.

"Hey! The prey's running away!" Fugamon pointed at the village inhabitants.

"This is bad…!" Sheryl quickly corrected herself as she ran over and stopped between the ogre Digimon and the plant Digimon. "We have to buy time! Piyomon!"

"Magical Fire!" Piyomon fired phantom flames from its flapping wings.

"Too bad!" Hyogamon smirked, erecting an ice barrier from the ground and completely nullified Piyomon's attack.

"Overlord Fist!" A dark blast shot from Ogremon's punching arm.

"Evil Hurricane!" Fugamon fired off a mini-hurricane from its club.

"Iceball Throw!" Hyogamon launched giant icicles from nowhere.

All the attacks were directed at the fleeing Digimon.

"Piyomon!" Sheryl shouted.

"Magical Fire!" Piyomon fired its attack again, somehow managing to deflect Ogremon's attack.

"Tsuibami Attack!" Piyomon then quickly transitioned to a spinning attack where it drilled through the hurricane, dispersing it.

Sheryl managed to step between the icicle attack and the Tanemon. She spread her arms to act as a shield.

"Watch out!"

Both Piyomon and Palmon arrived in front of Sheryl, taking the hits from the icicles. One struck through one of Piyomon's wings and another hit through Palmon's chest. The rest managed to miss their target completely. Both Digimon fell to the ground, injured and weakened.

"Piyomon! Palmon!" Sheryl cried, running toward the two.

Palmon held an arm out to Sheryl, trying to speak, before its whole body split into data blocks and disappeared.

Sheryl gripped her head, eyes wide open. "No…not again…"

Memories overflowed her mind.

Carnage…

Destruction…

Death…

Everyone important…

Disappearing…

All her fault…

"Sheryl!" Piyomon cried with a hint of pain in her voice.

Sheryl quickly regained her senses as she stared at Piymon who was nailed to the ground by the icicle. She looked behind her to see the Tanemon confused, unable to act without a leader.

"Not again…" Sheryl slowly stood up. "I won't let you hurt everyone!"

The Ogre Brothers all slowly walked over. "I don't care anymore about who gets dibs on the human," Ogremon said.

"Yeah, let's just kill them all and talk about it later," Hyogamon agreed.

"We let one of them go to waste; can't have that happen again." Fugamon took a few swings of its club in the air.

"Sheryl…!" Piyomon managed to free herself from the icicle, but had a gaping hole in her wing. Judging by her winced face and staggering steps, she was in intense pain.

"Piyomon…" Sheryl shook her head. "Get back. I don't want you to get hurt!"

"That's what I should say." Piyomon stood in front of Sheryl. "I trust in you. What happened back then will never happen again. You're stronger now."

Piyomon knew what Sheryl was thinking about just a moment ago. Sheryl couldn't help but crack a smile. "Piyomon…you're the best."

The screen on Sheryl's Digivice began to glow. Sheryl stared at the screen for a moment before closing her eyes with a nod. "This time…! Retinal Scan!" The red light wiped across her eyes again.

TAMER CONFIRMED

"Evolution!" She shouted, holding out her Digivice.

EVOLUTION

A white light bathed Piyomon.

"Piyomon, evolve!" Piyomon shouted.

As the light dispersed, a large red feathered Digimon with horns on its head emerged. "Aquilamon!"

Sheryl looked dumbfounded at Aquilamon. "What…?" The normal Adult form she knew was Birdramon, a flaming red phoenix Digimon, but what was flying before her was obviously not Birdramon.

"Sheryl! Do not worry!" Aquilamon spoke. "Although I may not be of the same appearance, my heart is still the same. I shall protect you and the Tanemon at all costs!"

Sheryl nodded. "Okay. Let's do this…Aquilamon!" She shouted.

"Wave Laser!" Aquilamon fired a linear laser from its mouth to try and strike through the enemies, but they all jumped back and dodged.

"What the hell?" Hyogamon shouted.

"Glide Horn!" Without a second breath, Aquilamon rammed into Fugamon with red glowing horns.

"Blast Laser!" Aquilamon followed its charge with rings that fired from her mouth as she screeched.

The barrage of assaults was too much for Fugamon, as it dispersed into data blocks and disappeared.

Sheryl watched the remaining two begin to get frightened. They may have all been Adults and may have had an advantage in numbers, but when it came to tactical prowess, Aquilamon had the advantage due to her training from DMS.

"That Digimon took out Fugamon in just a few moments!" Hyogamon cried.

"Tch, damn you! Overlord Fist!" Ogremon fired off another blast of dark energy.

Aquilamon easily dodged the blast before firing back a Blast Laser, knocking back Ogremon.

"Chance!" Hyogamon shouted as it jumped into the air. "Ice Club!" It tried to strike Aquilamon with its club.

Aquilamon noticed it and quickly charged its horns. "Too slow! Glide Horn!" Before Hyogamon could finish its attack, Aquilamon rammed into its chest and began to fly upward with its horns still charged. As they went faster and faster into the sky, Hyogamon eventually couldn't endure Aquilamon's assault anymore and was ripped into two and dispersed into data.

Ogremon was already back up to its feet. "Damn you all!" It darted its eyes to Sheryl. "If I can't kill that bird, I'll at least kill you!" It proceeded to try and maul into Sheryl. "Strong Maul!"

Sheryl didn't try to dodge, but simply pointed up. "Watch out."

Ogremon ignored her warning as another Blast Laser from Aquilamon slammed Ogremon right into the ground. The attack continued to drive it into the dirt until Ogremon finally was destroyed and split into data blocks.

Aquilamon slowly landed back to the ground. Sheryl took hold of Aquilamon's head and embraced it. "Good job, Aquilamon."

The Tanemon all came bouncing back and surrounded the two, cheering happily.

* * *

After some rest in the village, Sheryl and the de-evolved Piyomon met with Floramon and the remaining Tanemon in the front of the village the next morning.

Flormon bowed to Sheryl and Piyomon. "Thank you. Because of you, we are now freed from the terror of the Ogre Brothers."

Sheryl veered her eyes to the side. "But…we couldn't save all the Tanemon, and Palmon…"

Floramon shook its head. "I'm sure Palmon would be happy that you have saved our village from future trouble. I am ashamed that I could not protect everyone like Palmon did."

After a moment of silence, Floramon pointed to a patch of green in the distance. "Vert Nursery is across that forest. If you fly high above it, I believe you can avoid any unnecessary trouble from evil Digimon."

"Thank you very much, Floramon." Sheryl bowed back.

After exchanging some final farewells, Sheryl evolved Piyomon back to Aquilamon as she sat upon Aquilamon's neck. Aquilamon began to flap its wings and flew off to the forest.

"I wonder why you aren't Birdramon now…" Sheryl couldn't help but ponder.

"I do not know either, but it does not change my feelings. I will continue to protect you as I would have before," Aquilamon replied with an assuring voice.

"Thank you, Aquilamon…" Sheryl looked back forward. "Let's go find Rei!"


	7. Cats from Dogs

**Author Notes: If you have not done so yet, please read the Author Notes in the first chapter. Also, I was very tired while writing this chapter, so more mistakes may appear than usual.  
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Chapter 7

Cats from Dogs

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"Are you going?" Sunflowmon asked Rei.

"I'm going to go find my friends," Rei replied while checking his sack. He found a holster and a pistol amongst the rations. He tied it reluctantly to his belt.

"I would advise you to stay while your partner isn't with you. To leave here you must first enter a forest filled with dangerous Digimon. Without anyone to protect, I do not believe a human like you has a chance of survival."

Rei paused for a moment taking the words in. "Even then…Plotmon is alone out there. There's not much she can do from what I've seen. I have to go to her." Rei looked back at the crowd of Baby 2 Digimon and Sunflowmon. "Bye."

Sunflowmon reluctantly nodded. "I understand. Be safe, human."

Rei turned back around and began to head for the forest. It only took a few minutes to enter the forest, and even shorter for him to lose all sense of direction. The forest was thick and full of lush green trees with strange plants growing from the base of them. The ground was covered in moist dirt which sunk down with every step he took. It suddenly didn't feel like a wise decision to enter the forest, but he didn't know the way back.

"Shit…," He cursed to himself while he continued walking.

As he walked, something suddenly jumped out from nowhere. Rei quickly jumped back, dodging the attack. He saw a small Digimon with purple fur and a jagged mouth and spiked ears.

"…What the hell?" Rei wasn't expecting such a small Digimon to be in this forest of supposedly 'dangerous' Digimon.

"Metal Drop!" It fired a metal bead for its mouth.

Rei stepped back to dodge the attack, but then saw it charge at him with its sharp ears stuck forward.

Rei instinctively kicked the Digimon in the face, sending it flying a few meters back. As he watched the Digimon tumble around after hitting the ground, he took a sigh. "Weak…"

Rei then recalled the attack the small Digimon did to be similar to one Dorumon used before. "Hey you!"

The Digimon was already back on its feet, ready for battle.

"Are you Meilin's Digimon?"

The scowl from the Digimon's face disappeared. "You know Meilin?"

Rei cocked his head. "Uh…yeah, as you can see, I'm clearly a human. Plus we met before."

The Digimon jumped up and down. "Follow me!" Completely ignoring Rei's latter statement, it quickly ran toward a direction while Rei followed suit.

After a few seconds of running, they eventually arrived to where Meilin was. She was sitting against a tree, unconscious and completely nude.

"…Why is she naked?" Rei asked, confused.

"When we got here, a Digimon showed up and stole her clothes," Meilin's Digimon explained.

Rei pulled off his jacket and covered her up. "Why?"

"Human clothes are considered a rarity in the Digital World. You can barter with them."

Rei turned around to see Plotmon wagging her tail. She ran over and jumped into Rei's arms. "So this is where you were…Where did you go?"

"I showed up somewhere in this forest. I was hiding up until Meilin and Dorimon showed up. They were already like this when I found them though."

They all heard Meilin groan as she slowly woke up. Rei walked over to her. "You okay?"

She opened her eyes and looked up at him. "Huh…? Yeah, I guess. Where am I…?"

She sat up, causing the jacket Rei placed on her to drop from her chest. She suddenly noticed her physical condition and quickly screamed, covering herself with the jacket. "Why am I naked? What did you do to me?" She glared at Rei.

He scoffed. "I didn't do anything. You were like this when I found you. Apparently some Digimon jacked all your clothes."

She began to recall what happened before she was knocked out. "That's right…that Digimon…." She closed her eyes and she tried to remember which Digimon it was. "It was a black ball with wings…It started saying some things and I felt sleepy…"

"I think it was a PicoDevimon(DemiDevimon)," Plotmon suggested. "They seem like the type who would do something like this."

While Rei wasn't looking, Meilin had slipped on his jacket and zipped it up. It was much too big for her, so the extra length covered her down far enough to covered most of her thighs. "PicoDevimon…I won't forgive that thing!" Her face scowled in rage.

"Yeah…" Rei looked off to the side, not amused by all that was happening. "Do you even know where that thing is?"

"N…no…," She said softly. "But I'll find it and get back my clothes if it's the last thing I do!"

What a prideful runt, Rei thought.

"There's still a scent around here. If I follow it, I think it can lead us to PicoDevimon," Plotmon offered.

"…I forgot you were a dog." Rei commented.

"Lead the way, Plotmon!" Meilin commanded.

While Plotmon sniffed around the area for a trail, Meilin turned to Rei. "Hey uh…when you found me, I was completely naked, right?" She was fidgeting a bit.

"Yeah…so?"

"So…you saw everything…right?"

"I guess. I wasn't really paying attention to it though."

"Forget everything!" She shouted. "Got that?"

Rei took a step back, startled by her sudden increase in volume. "Y-Yeah, whatever…"

"Got it!" Plotmon alerted them. "This way!"

Plotmon started off down a path and everyone followed her with a light jog.

Along the way, the pace slowed down to a fast walk. Rei took a look at Dorimon. "So…what happened with your Digimon? It didn't seem to remember me at all."

Meilin's face showed a bit of sorrow. "…When Digimon are reborn as eggs, they lack memories of their past life. It was a coincidence that he took a liking to me even though he was just born."

"What happened?"

"I hugged him tightly…it felt like a happy reunion even though I knew he didn't remember me at all…"

"Maybe he thinks you're his mom or something like that."

"Maybe…I don't understand it much myself. I'm just glad he didn't reject me." A small crack of a smile emerged from her face.

While walking, she stepped on something that stuck out from the ground. She looked at what she stepped on. "Hey! My Digivice!" She quickly swiped it from the ground.

"Looks like we're getting closer," Rei said.

As they continued for another half an hour or so, pausing a few times for Plotmon to recapture the scent, they eventually arrived in an opening where a large of Digimon were gathered. This is probably where most of those dangerous Digimon Sunflowmon talked about were, Rei thought.

"I got my hands on some fresh human clothing!" A nasal-sounding voice proclaimed.

"That the thing!" Meilin shouted. "That's the Digimon tha-mmmmghmm!" Rei covered her mouth.

"Shut it." He looked over to Plotmon. "Got any ideas on who those Digimon are?"

Plotmon scanned them all. "They're pretty strong, but I think that the highest level in there are Adults."

"So what's the plan?" Rei released Meilin.

Suppressing her rage, Meilin thought for a bit. "We can't just go out and grab them. There has to be a way for us get a hold of them without the Digimon noticing."

Meilin smirked at Rei. "Why don't you become a decoy? We'll grab the clothes while you get their attention."

Rei sighed. "Fine. While they're coming after me, you guys go grab the clothes."

"What?" Plotmon asked alarmingly. "You can't get away once that happens!"

"Just get over here and save me before I get killed."

"W-Wait!" Meilin grabbed his arm. "I was just kidding!"

"Do you have any better ideas?" Rei asked.

"N…no…" Meilin said reluctantly. "But…"

"If there's nothing, I'm going." Rei took a step away.

"Before you go, let's reset our Digivices." She pulled out her blue Digivice. "I checked when I got here. None of them are connected with each other anymore."

Rei pulled out his own Digivice. Meilin proceeded to press various buttons until both Digivices showed "CONNECTED" on them.

"Alright…be careful. I don't really care about your safety, but it'll be nothing but trouble for me if you die here," Meilin said.

"Yeah yeah…" Rei walked off into the forest with a wave.

Not long after, a loud noise was heard off in the opposite direction. Rei came out into the opening pointing a pistol at the Digimon. "Hey! Give me those clothes!"

"A human?" One of the Digimon exclaimed.

"I'd rather get that human than just some clothes!" Another one grinned.

The bidders all rushed for Rei, who already started to run away.

"Now!" Meilin shouted, pointing at the confused PicoDevimon. "Attack!"

PicoDevimon noticed Meilin and the others, but noticed too late as he was pummeled by Dorimon's Metal Drop and Plotmon's Puppy Howling. Although it didn't kill the Digimon, they stunned it long enough so Meilin could grab her clothes.

"I'm going to go help Rei!" Plotmon shouted as she rushed over to aid the fleeing boy.

"Y-You!" PicoDevimon snapped out of its daze and glared at Dorimon and Meilin.

"Serves you right for stealing my clothes!" Meilin grinned.

"Damn you! Pico Dart!" A few syringes appeared out of thin air and shot straight at the two.

"Metal Drop!" Multiple metal beads shot out from Dorimon's mouth and knocked all the syringes off course.

"Hehe…" PicoDevimon grinned. "Sorry about all that…how about you just give me back those clothes of yours?"

Meilin's eyes began to droop as she swayed back and forth. "It's…again…this feeling…" She felt herself slowly being drowsier and drowsier.

Dorimon also felt the effects and tried hard to fight it. "You…won't get away with this again…!"

Dorimon shouted as loud as it could as its body began to glow. The shape changed into a bigger form.

"Dash Metal!"

The light-enveloped Digimon rammed into PicoDevimon, sending it flying into a tree.

Meilin suddenly felt better again, freed from PicoDevimon's Demon's Whisper. "Dorumon!"

"Dorimon evolve…" As the light resided, it showed a familiar furred dinosaur. "Dorumon!" Dorumon roared before firing off its Metal Cannon attack as he bombarded PicoDevimon with metal balls. It eventually couldn't take it anymore and turned into data.

Meilin dropped her clothes and ran over to Dorumon. "You're back to this form again!"

Dorumon looked confused, but smiled. "I will continue to protect you even now, Meilin."

* * *

Plotmon had caught up to Rei while Meilin and Dorumon were battling PicoDevimon. Rei had managed to hide behind trees for various attacks conducted by the Digimon, but he was getting tired from running.

"Rei! I'm here to help!" Plotmon turned 180 degrees to face the Digimon. "Puppy…" She took a deep inhale. "Howling!" From her mouth came a widespread howl that caused all the chasing Digimon to stagger back.

"Argh, what's that sound?" One of the Digimon roared.

"Die, you maggot!" A Digimon fired off a fireball at Plotmon.

The attack hit and sent Plotmon flying back. Rei ran toward her and quickly grabbed her before she hit the ground.

"Hey! You okay?" Rei asked, alarmed.

Part of her body was burned with some of her body fading into data blocks.

"This is it!" Another Digimon shot off a blast of light.

"Shit…!" Rei gripped Plotmon tightly in his arms and closed his eyes for impact.

Rei's Digivice suddenly lit up.

EVOLUTION BYPASS

EVOLUTION

Plotmon's body was covered in white light as she jumped out of Rei's clutches. An electrically charged paw slammed away the blast. The light landed on the ground.

"Plotmon evolve…" As the light subsided, a black cat with gloves appeared from within. It stood up on its hind legs and pointed a paw at the Digimon. "BlackTailmon(BlackGatomon)!"

Before the attacking Digimon could react to this new enemy, BlackTailmon's eyes lit up. "Cat's Eye!"

All the Digimon began to act funny and started to look off in various directions. All of them became confused from BlackTailmon's attack. "Get out of here and never bother us again!"

They all awkwardly nodded before going away.

Rei stared at the black cat smirking at him as he slowly stood up and walked over to her. "…Plotmon?"

She licked one of her gloved paws. "That's BlackTailmon now! I'm stronger than ever before!"

She wasn't much bigger than Plotmon. It's as if all that happened was that she changed from a dog to a cat.

"…I see." He looked back toward the trampled ground. "We should head back to Meilin."

Rei pulled out his Digivice and contacted her. After confirming that they were both done with their business, he told her to stay put while he would walk back to her.

After returning, Rei met up with Meilin who was already in her own clothes. They each noticed the other's Digimon had evolved when they separated.

"Looks like you got your old Digimon back," Rei commented.

"And it looks like you got a new one," Meilin shot back.

She held out his jacket. "Here…thanks," she said softly.

He pulled back on his jacket with a quick "Yeah."

After that, they all continued on until they left the forest without too much resistance from its inhabitants. They arrived in a grassy field with nothing interesting to note.

"…Where to now?" Rei scratched the back of his head.

"Where was Sheryl when you got here?" Meilin asked.

"Not with me. I showed up in…Vert Nursery I think…by myself."

"…with the communications on our Digivices down there would be no way to find her."

"I have a suggestion." BlackTailmon announced. "We should go check out the Digimon Sovereigns. They govern the Digital World and would probably be able to help us."

"I guess we have to since we have no other lead," Meilin said.

"The closest one is Xuanwumon(Ebonwumon), the Sovereign of the north. He's also the nicest one, so he'd be the easiest to approach."

"Where is he?" Rei asked.

"The far north of the Digital World. They say when you get closer, the area around you gets colder and water becomes more dominant."

Meilin showed Rei her Digivice. On the screen was a digital compass. "Luckily cardinal directions still work in the Digital World. We just have to keep going north, right?"

With a plan set, they all nodded and started to head off to find Xuanwumon.


	8. Holy Beast of the North

**AUTHOR NOTES: If you have not read the notes from the first chapter, please go back to to read them before you read this chapter.**

Misc Notes: Sorry for the wait. I don't have much drive to write this thing as I did in the beginning. Plus school is annoying. I'll try my best to get through it though.**  
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Chapter 8

Holy Beast of the North

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It was nightfall and the 3rd day since Rei and the others left the forest near Vert Nursery. They had set up tents and everyone was asleep except Rei, who couldn't fall into slumber. The temperature was starting to become colder and the amount of bodies of water also began to increase, indicating they were getting close. Rei stood by the edge of a pond covered by a thin coat of ice on the top. Despite the cold climate, the DMS jackets were made from special material and technology that kept the wearer at a comfortable temperature.

"How much longer will it take…?" He said to himself, looking at his distorted reflection from the ice on the water.

Feeling restless, he started to walk around the vicinity aimlessly. That was when Rei noticed a strange looking hill. It had brown grass as opposed to the ice-covered glass around the area. He took a step closer to the hill but stopped when the hill began to move. It started to rotate around. Rei took a jump back and stared intently at the hill rotating. Soon it was apparent that it was not a hill, but a Digimon. A large sharp-toothed mouth revealed itself along with huge tusks, red horns and eyes. With the inclusion of a snout Rei had come to the conclusion that it was a giant boar. It was at least 10 stories tall and took up a huge area.

"A human…" It said with a low booming voice.

Rei didn't reply and simply stared at the gigantic Digimon, not knowing what to expect.

"Hmmm…As much as I would want to eat you, Xuanwumon said that not everything is to be eaten." The boar looked slightly disappointed.

"Xuanwumon?" Rei asked. "Wait, are we near there?"

"Yes. Xuanwumon is just a few more miles from here. Are you searching for him?"

"Yeah, I am." Rei felt that this Digimon would be of no harm to him. "We have some business with him."

The boar growled. "Are you going to hurt Xuanwumon…?"

Rei noticed the Digimon's killing intent and shook his head. "No. We just want to talk to him about something. We aren't going to hurt him as long as he's willing to listen."

The boar calmed down. "Oh…Xuanwumon will definitely listen. He likes listening." It smiled. "I'm Vikaralamon, one of Xuanwumon's Devas."

"Devas?"

"We Devas protect the Four Holy Beasts from harm and do their bidding." It looked proud of itself.

"I see…"Rei pondered for a moment. "If it's possible, can you take us to Xuanwumon? Having one of his Devas with us would feel more assuring."

"I don't want to." Vikaralamon bluntly replied. "But if you keep going further, you will find another Deva named Kumbhiramon. If you tell him I told you about him, he'll help."

"What does this Kumbhiramon look like?" Rei asked.

There was no response. Rei tried calling for the large Digimon a few more times but with no reply.

"Did it…fall asleep?" Rei tilted his head. Its eyes were still wide open, but it was definitely unconscious.

Giving up and feeling tired, Rei returned to camp to get some rest, but felt a bit happier knowing he had obtained some helpful information.

* * *

The next morning Rei had explained everything Vikaralamon said to the other three.

"So we have to find some Digimon who we don't know anything about and he'll take us to Xuanwumon?" Meilin confirmed weakly. "That's…a bit loose."

"But if this Vikaralamon is truly one of the three Devas under Xuanwumon, we should take his word for it," BlackTailmon said.

"Well, it's not like we have any other leads." Meilin sighed. She looked at her Digivice for the cardinal direction. "Let's keep going then."

As they were about to continue, a large blast of wind rushed from above them along with a cracking sound. They all knelt down for support until the wind halted. Dorumon was the first to recover and looked up in time to see what caused the sound.

"What…the hell was that?" Meilin screamed in rage.

Dorumon pointed at where the shape flew off. "It was a cat with wings."

Meilin and BlackTailmon stopped to think of a Digimon with similar properties.

Rei started to walk north. "Screw it. We'll find out later."

With all in agreement, they all continued to head toward Xuanwumon.

As they continued to walk for over an hour, the weather had changed to constant falling snow, and the ground was filled with it, reaching up to their knees. BlackTailmon had migrated to the inside of Rei's warm jacket with her head poking out from the collar.

"This might get pretty bad…" Meilin commented. "It's getting cold; more than what a normal person can take. Even with these jackets I don't think we can last for too much longer."

"Stop!" Dorumon shouted all of a sudden. He began to sniff around. "I smell something…"

BlackTailmon also started to scan the area. " I feel it too. It's…" She jumped out of Rei's jacket onto the snow. "A rodent!"

As if on cue, a small white mouse flew out from the snow with a high-pitched giggle. It had legs like a spider, wings, and a metal pronged stick on its back. "Good work discovering me~chuu!"

Meilin's eyelips drooped. "…chuu?"

"I don't know what you humans are doing here, but you won't lay a hand on Xuanwumon~chuu!" The stick it had flew off its back and rushed straight at Rei.

"Metal Cannon!" Dorumon knocked the stick off course with a metal ball from its mouth.

"You're mine!" BlackTailmon jumped to attack, but the soft snow under her easily crumbled and she stumbled forward.

The mouse squealed in delight. "Oh how hard working you are, trying to fight in the playing field I set up~chuu."

Meilin grimaced. "I see. You purposely waited until we were in the snow field before attacking us."

"I've been following you for some time, waiting for the chance to strike, and that chance is now!" The stick turned toward Rei again.

"Are you Kumbhiramon?" Rei asked.

The stick stopped in midair. The mouse looked curious. "Hmm…how do you know of my name~chuu?"

"Vikaralamon asked me to see you if I wanted to meet Xuanwumon."

Meilin noticed Kumbhiramon's behavior and followed up Rei. "We're here because there's a powerful Digimon here that messed up the real world and we have to find it."

"Your problem is of no concern to Xuanwumon. Leave here or else I will destroy you where you stand~chuu."

"Wait, Kumbhiramon."

Kumbhiramon turned around as two Digimon approached. One was a black minotaur with red armor and horns while the other was a yellow tiger with purple armor and wings.

"That's the Digimon I saw flying by!" Dorumon exclaimed, pointing at the winged tiger.

"I knew I saw some humans when coming over here." The tiger smirked. "Who knew they'd be related to the recent problems going on."

The minotaur turned toward Rei and the others. "Humans; the information you spoke of matches somewhat to what we have just heard from Mihiramon." It waved a hand toward the tiger to indicate who Mihiramon was. "Xuanwumon would like for you to meet him personally."

Meilin looked at Rei. "It might be a trap."

"I doubt it." BlackTailmon jumped onto Rei's shoulder. "Xuanwumon isn't the type to do things like that from what I heard."

Rei nodded to the black Digimon. "Alright, we'll follow you. I'm Rei, and these are my companions BlackTailmon, Meilin, and Dorumon."

"I am Vajramon, one of Xuanwumon's Devas." It lowered its head slightly in respect.

"Vajramon said so already, but I'm Mihiramon." The tiger grinned.

"Four…?" Meilin placed a hand on her chin. "Weren't there only three Devas per Holy Beast?"

Mihiramon scoffed. "As if I'd be one of Xuanwumon's Devas. That guy's way too boring. Not my style. I'm one of Qinglongmon's (Azulongmon) Devas. I'm just here to deliver the message about the Digimon."

"Follow me," Vajramon commanded as he walked away.

All the others followed him until they reached a large lake with a huge Digimon in the middle. It wasn't as large as Vikaralamon, but was still of a grand size, with a large thick tree on its turtle shell back. It had two heads coming out from the front of the shell.

"Humans…" It said in a large booming voice with both its heads. "Thank you for coming. I am Xuanwumon, the Holy Beast of the North." One of the two heads looked toward Vajramon. "Thank you for bringing them here, Vajramon."

"Yes, Xuanwumon." Vajramon bowed with a fist on its own chest.

The heads both looked at Rei and the others again. "The Digimon that you seek has undeniably arrived here in the Digital World. Its mere presence is causing the Digital World to shift out of balance. Although nothing is noticeable now, as time goes by the world as we know it will be gone."

Meilin looked away to think. "We knew that Daemon was trouble, but to be able to cause the whole Digital World to screw up…." She closed her eyes. "Who knew that the Dark Virus could affect not only Digimon, but also the Digital World itself…"

Xuanwumon nodded. "If left alone, this Daemon will surely destroy the Digital World."

"So why haven't you guys done anything about it yet?" Meilin questioned. "You're the all powerful Holy Beasts, right? You must be strong enough to take him out."

"Our leader, Huanglongmon(Fanglongmon) was the first target of Daemon. He was immediately defeated with a strange power, most likely the 'Dark Virus' you had mentioned." Xuanwumon looked up. "Huanglongmon is still flying in the skies, but controlled by Daemon, who lives within him."

"Wait, Daemon is living inside Huanglongmon?" Meilin asked in disbelief. "Exactly how big of a Digimon is Huanglongmon?"

"He is an enormous Digimon. Vikaralamon's size is nothing compared to Huanglongmon."

They all turned to Rei, who was the only one who saw the boar Digimon. He closed his eyes to remember the size of the Digimon. "…That'd be pretty big. We're probably talking about a Digimon the size of a castle or fortress."

"A living fortress…" Meilin cast down her eyes.

"But with your arrival all is not lost." Xuanwumon changed the mood. "Because you are humans and not digital beings as we are, you may be able to resist the Dark Virus to enter Huanglongmon and defeat Daemon." Xuanwumon closed his eyes as a green light surrounded him. The light slipped off him into a small glowing light that hovered toward Rei's Digivice and disappeared. "I have given you the essence of my Digi Code. With it and the other three Holy Beasts's Digi Codes, you will be able to create a pathway to enter Huanglongmon and face Daemon directly."

"So we still need to meet the other three?" BlackTailmon groaned in annoyance.

"You are too weak at the moment. You must venture to the other three Holy Beasts in order to gain the power to defeat Daemon."

Meilin looked at Rei. "Looks like we have no choice."

"Yeah," Rei replied.

"The night is coming quickly." Xuanwumon commented. "Stay in the resting quarters for tonight. You may leave in the morning."

Meilin nodded. "Alright. Thank you."

They all headed toward a large hut with not much of anything other than some torches for light. The hut was warm though and was better than staying outside. They dropped off their things before heading back out, since it was still a bit too early to sleep. The four of them found Mihiramon and Vajramon facing each other in the snow.

"How about a fight before I head back?" Mihiramon smirked. "It's been a while since I've faced off against you, and my claws are begging for something to scratch."

Vajramon nodded, pulling out his two blades from their sheaths. "I never back down from a challenge, and to be able to fight you again would be an honor."

Kumbhiramon floated next to the Tamers. "This is something good to see~chuu." He suggested. "You're going to have to fight at this level of power before you'll be able to face against the other Devas~chuu."

"Rodha!" Vajramon struck the ground with his swords and sent a shockwave at Mihiramon.

"Going on the offensive, huh? I like that!" Mihiramon's tail suddenly turned into a three-section staff and smashed the ground. "Vimohana!" it also created a shockwave and clashed into Vajramon's, creating a large explosion as the two attacks cancelled each other.

Within the smoke created from the impact, Mihiramon flew forward and attempted to strike Vajramon with its wing blades, but the black centaur blocked it with his blades.

The two of them continued to trade blows as Rei stared intently. Meilin looked at him. "Is this your first time seeing two high level Digimon trading blows?"

"There was the time where Ms. Clyne's Digimon and Daemon fought and when Lilithmon fought Daemon, but I'm still not used to it yet," He replied.

After around half an hour, the two Devas both stopped. Mahiramon grinned. "Nice fight."

"You have not lost your touch." Vajramon sheathed his swords.

Rei knew BlackTailmon couldn't pull off what he just saw. He had to find a way to get stronger before they reached the next Holy Beast.

After dinner and a good night's sleep in the hut, the four of them awoke and left the hut they stayed in to meet Xuanwumon one last time.

"Where'd Mihiramon go?" Meilin asked Xuanwumon.

"He left back to the east to tell Qinglongmon of your soon arrival," the large tortoise replied.

"So that's where we're headed first?" Rei confirmed.

"Out of the rest of the Holy Beasts, Qinglongmon is the most understanding to my knowledge. Normally he would not help humans, but we are in a crisis, so he may change his mind."

"Keyword being 'may'…" BlackTailmon rolled her eyes.

Xuanwumon ignored her. "Head to the southeast from here. You will know you are close to his territory when lightning storms become more common."

Meilin bowed in respect. "Thank you. We'll be heading off now. Thank you for your hospitality."

"May your journey prove successful, humans." Xuanwumon nodded its heads to them.

After Xuanwumon left their site, the four of them stopped walking. Meilin pulled out her Digivice and started entering coordinates. "Alright, we're pretty far north I'm guessing. Qinglongmon is probably going to be far east." Meilin looked at Rei. "I doubt we can arrive there in just a few days like we did for here."

They all stood there silently for a few moments thinking about what to do before Dorumon spoke up. "Let's all continue walking for now and we can think about it later."

Meilin cocked her head but nodded. "He's right. We can stand here thinking all day without answers but it won't help. Let's just continue walking for now."

Although a poor plan, they all agreed and set off to the southeast.


End file.
